SC-1 Mic preamp case.

While I love Wood working, I also have a home recording studio. One of the other forums I contribute to, The Studio-Central forum is full of studio owners, professional engineers and a large degree of industry experts. One of them designed a Microphone preamp that he sells in a kit. Well, I bought one, and after quite a bit of soldering, I figured I would make a case for it out of a Cookie tin. So I cut it up and installed it. I also found some vintage VU meters on eBay for $30. Then I made a face plate out of some spare 1/4 inch ply that I stained and added several coats of poly. The result is the first pic above.

The pre worked great. Incredible gain for my Ribbon mic, and no distortion. So I decided to make a 2 channel rack mounted version. However finding a 2-space rack chassis new runs in the neighborhood of $200. Which I thought was unnecessary, so I searched out eBay, and lo and behold I found an old (*broken) 2 space network switch for $14. I gutted it…

and for the face plate, I again used the 1/4 inch ply stained.

then applied the poly urethane.

And finally wired it all up.

and Here is the finished result.

I added these really cool vintage radio knobs, which aren’t included in the pic.

Oh, and it sounds fantastic.

-- When my wife ask's what I have to show for my wood working hobby, I just show her the splinters.

Right now, I’m using a Cascade Fat head. They are terrific and pretty durable.

I’d love to buy a Royers, but can’t really justify spending over $1K on a single mic.

I have a decent smattering of low cost mics. A couple of SM57’s, a few of the MXL Lg diaphram condensers, a few generic Cardoids. A cheap Radio Shack Dynamic that sounds great on a Kick drum. About 12 mic’s total.

My current mic box is an old wine crate that I modified with foam, and purple velvet lining. But I’m working on a really cool Oak cabinet with Spalted birch drawer fronts and brass labeled pulls (like a card catalog).

I’m sort of modelling it after an antique spice box. I’m hand cutting the dovetails, and I need to work on getting them tighter.

-- When my wife ask's what I have to show for my wood working hobby, I just show her the splinters.

I’m always working on new stuff. Most of it was done with less than stellar wood skills, and technique. I plan to redo most of the projects with a refined style, and emphasis on mastering joinery such as hand cut dovetails, etc.

-- When my wife ask's what I have to show for my wood working hobby, I just show her the splinters.